22.02.13

The U.S. military’s entire fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters has been grounded, owing to a crack in the engine of one jet. This is at least the fourth full or partial stand-down of the F-35, the Pentagon’s main future fighter, in just the last two and a half years.

“On Feb. 19, 2013, a routine engine inspection revealed a crack on a low pressure turbine blade of an F135 engine installed in a … test aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, California,” Kyra Hawn, a program spokeswoman, wrote in a statement.

If you were king, and didn’t have to worry about congress or defense contractor lobbyists or any of that crap, what type of jets would you buy for the Air Force (let’s set the Navy and USMC issue aside for this post)?

Would you purchase more of the latest block of the F-15 and F-16, perhaps some of the enhanced models made available for export to South Korea and Israel (respectively)? Would you buy a foreign gen 4.5 fighter that’s already “off-the-shelf” like Typhoon, Rafale, or Gripen? How about the Super Hornet?

Would you punt the issue, and keep the existing fleet of F-15s and 16s flying and hope that some radical improvement (a new set of high-performance UAVs, some Gen 6 wunder fighter) shows up in the 10-15 year horizon?

Is a fighter bomber that can’t do more than 4.5 to 5 G sustained maneuvering still a fighter bomber? Or just a stealthy, small bomb train that will get you killed if the a mig21 gets into visual range?

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